ISIS fanatics BEHEAD and kill 22 people including women and children in Congo bloodbath
ISIS fanatics have killed at least 22 people including women and children in a bloodbath in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Officials said that militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) beheaded 13 of the victims in a brutal attack of Kisima-Vutotolia, a village near the town of Beni on Tuesday.
They stated that among the victims there was a number of women and children before adding that there are still bodies being recovered.
Territorial administrator Donat Kibuana said: "The situation in Kisima is very tragic.
"There was a raid by the ADF around 7 pm last night. Thirteen people lost their lives," he said.
A number of villagers are also thought to have been kidnapped.
"We have already recovered 13 bodies. These people were bound and decapitated," an aid worker told AFP.
The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), which monitors violence in the region, said seven bodies of civilians were found in nearby Singipa, and that around a dozen people were missing.
Roger Masimango, a representative of civil society groups in the Rwenzori area, said the village chief in Kisima and his wife were among the dead.
He added that two children aged four and two months were found alive alongside the bodies of their parents.
It comes just days after another attack blamed on the ADF left 31 dead on May 12 northwest of Beni.
Meanwhile, an attack in Palma, Mozambique, last month left 50 people dead and several missing including Brit Phil Mawer, leading experts to believe that Africa is set to become the new frontline in the war against ISIS.
French expert on jihad Olivier Guitta, from Global Risk Consultancy warned: “Africa is going to be the battleground of jihad for the next 20 years and it’s going to replace the Middle East.”
Violence in the area has been rising as a series of atrocities has been carried out by ISIS fanatics.
Many of the attacks have been blamed on ADF, a Ugandan military group that has been active in Congo since 1995.
On March 11, the United States said the ADF was linked to the Islamic State (IS) group, and was known as ISIS-DRC or Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen.
DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi on May 6 proclaimed a 30-day "state of siege" - effectively martial law - in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province in a bid to curb bloodshed by the ADF.
Under the move, military and police officers have taken over from civilian authorities.
Last year, the Pentagon warned ISIS is taking over swathes of Africa like it did in Syria and Iraq with "staggeringly brutal" tactics.
The Pentagon report said there has been a "marked upward curve of claimed cumulative attacks and casualties" across Africa, but the "largest and most sophisticated" presence is in West Africa and the Greater Sahara.
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"Isis in west Africa is engaging in operations that are increasingly audacious, staggeringly brutal, and worryingly akin to what ISIL, as it was known at the time, was doing early 2014," it said.
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